Elon Musk has boasted that X has become the world’s most popular app. But this success seems to be the result of two outrages over two much-criticized images showing celebrities.
In recent days, Musk has posted a series of tweets emphasizing that the X app is at the top of the list of free apps for iOS. “If I had a dollar for every time the media reported that one of my companies was going away, I would never need to raise money,” he said in one tweet, noting that the app had topped the list, and in another, “If I had a dollar for every time the media reported that one of my companies was going away, I would never need to raise money.
The circulation of a video that users claim shows singer Drake half-naked and engaged in a sexual act appears to have partly fueled the app’s surge in popularity. Drake has not publicly commented on the leaked video and it has not been confirmed that it is indeed him.
Despite the uncertainty, the video has been viewed tens of millions of times and shared widely across the site. X, formerly known as Twitter, said it was working hard to remove posts that shared the video, but they are still widely available.
This week, various phrases like “Drake video” trended across the site as users commented on the video and tried to find it.
Such was the app’s surge in popularity just days after X dealt with the removal of deepfake AI-generated images that appeared to be explicit photos of Taylor Swift. Like the Drake video, these videos were widely available before they were removed, receiving massive amounts of views and shares.
Since Elon Musk bought the then-Twitter in 2021, he has reduced the moderation teams along with other staff. X, as it was then known, has since received significant criticism for its content policies and practices, including condemnation from the European Union.
source:https://www.independent.co.uk/tech
